April 13, 2026 • 18 mins
Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson joins the show to break down an officer involved shooting over the weekend.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're now joined in studio by Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson,
along with an intern who is spying on Douglas County
sheriffing for Layla is here from Long Beach, California, and
she's spying on She's spying on Sheriff Hansen's.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
This is our last day with intern Layla, Our last
day with intern Laila as she completes her internship with
the Sheriff's office, and then she's gonna head back to
California to pursue law enforcement options. I told her I'd
write her a good letter of recommendations.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Good I will too, I'll write you one too. Why not?
All right?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
So, so yesterday I was MC and an Eagle Scout ceremony,
which was really great. And then next thing, you know,
my phone starts blowing up and I hear about a
horrible shooting involving one of your deputies. And this was
a domestic violence call, and so a lot I don't
(01:03):
have a lot of details. Details have been you know,
they've been coming out when they can come out. I
think you know you've done a great job, Sheriff, and
your media big shots have done a really good job
of not you know, jumping into the story too quick.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
But so tell us, let's go through this. What happened?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, actually I was. I was shopping at Minard's yesterday
looking for some for some garden supplies for Hanson Ranch,
and suddenly my phone started blowing up too, And the
first call I got was Mike McKnight, And of course,
because Mike McKnight's always on top of every every evolving
news story, but I heard the sirens as well, going
down Dodd Street. And what happened was at eleven forty
(01:45):
nine am, a nine call came in to a brand
new apartment complex in in Irvington in unincorporated Douglas County
one O three seven to two Weber Court. There was
a domestic disturbance UH female advise A boyfriend or ex
boyfriend had broken into apartment and immediately two deputies were
dispatched to respond. Not long after, there was an update
(02:08):
from the nine to one one caller that the boyfriend
was still unseen and causing the disturbance. Deputy Brayden Artzer
one of our newest deputies. He hasn't even been on
the job for a year, and he hasn't even been
out of field training for less than for a month,
but he was the first to respond there, dedicated and
(02:29):
willing to help an innocent victim. And as he exited
his cruiser and started to advance on the apartment building,
he took fire. Not only I mean he couldn't even see.
As far as we can tell, he couldn't even see
the attacker. He just knew that he was taking fire
from a ground level apartment. He was struck twice, once
(02:50):
in the arm, and as he turned to move and
escape and take cover, he was struck again. We just
found out this morning. He was struck in side. And
luckily that bullet was embedded right at the edge of
the side panel. It's possible had it gone a little
bit further to one side, we might be dealing with
(03:10):
a even worse outcome right now.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Wow, And if I could just for a moment, you know,
because my vast experience those vests, the side panels either
either go right together or sometimes they can overlap. It's
not real comfortable wearing them that way. But there's that
little bead gap in the side and it was that close, huh.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
That close?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
And literally I've lost friends who have been killed during
gun battles in which around pierced and separated the two
panels on the side, resulting in the death of one
of my friends. And so you know, it's a very
real risk. You can't you know, we can't make bullet
(03:56):
resistance vests that cover everything. It's just not possible to
do the best you can based on the constant evolution
of that technology.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
So he was, he was hit twice. Well, can we
can we talk about what kind of gun it was?
Or is that we're not talking about that yet, you.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Know, I think until I until I know for sure,
you know, I do know it was a handgun. I
was on SENE. I was in the hallway where the
shooter was ultimately located and transported via squad because he
had been mortally injured but still alive at that time,
to the emergency room, where where he did ultimately succumb
(04:37):
to his injuries. But you know, it would appear that
multiple shots in multiple volleys were fired at Deputy Artser
as he approached. Once Deputy Artser was hit, he retreated
back behind his vehicle and put it out over the
radio that he was taking fire and luckily too very
(04:57):
brave first responding Omah Plea officers rolled up as others
were securing the building and other deputies were arriving, and
they saw the deputy artser was injured seriously. They dumped
him into the back seat of the cruiser and they
performed a medical evacuation. They didn't wait for the squad.
They just evacuated him to Bergen Mercy Er so that
(05:20):
the medical professionals could begin life saving treatment. Very proud
of them, and I'm very thankful for our partners in OPD.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Well, when you know, when these guys respond, regardless of department,
they know, you know, like they I'm guessing they saw
that deputy, and so we can't wait for an ambulance.
Let's get this guy out of here immediately. And it was.
It was real fast. From what I understand I got. Well,
listening to you, it sounds like there was still maybe
(05:47):
some questions as to whether this was over or not.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
It wasn't over. I mean I think that you know,
the deputies had an officers had no reason to believe
that that the threat was over, and you know, but
what they did know is that they had innocent people
at risk and a sheriff's deputy had been injured and
they had to act, and they all did. They came
together as a team, and ultimately, once Deputy Artser had
(06:15):
been removed from the area, those Omaha police officers, those
Dougas Kinty Sheriff's deputies, those Nebraska State troopers, and the
Boystown police officers all came together to make a dynamic
entry into that apartment, take the shooting subject into custody,
and make the entire building safe again. It's a testament
(06:37):
to the teamwork that is law enforcement, not only you
know typically, but especially in this area. That particular area
is right on the edge of the city county boundary.
It's unincorporated Douglas County, so DCSOS primary jurisdiction, but within
a few blocks it's City of Omaha. So it's not
(06:57):
uncommon to have that overlap between the agents.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, Sheriff Arron Hanson with us here on the Chris
Bakers Show. Uh, do we know much about the suspect
in this case as far as criminal record?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Or we do, But I think at this time, you know,
I'm going to uh, we're doing a deep dive onto
the subject's record, and I know there will be a
time and place to discuss that, but right now, you know,
I want to be sensitive to the deceased individual's family
because they're innocent in the whole, right right. I mean
there you you had a domestic violence victim that had
(07:35):
some relationship with the shooting subject. You've got a lot
of family members and friends and and that you know,
a broad network. I met with them at the hospital yesterday,
and so I want to make sure that we're sensitive
to them as well. Today is a data to really
celebrate though, because Deputy r Artser just went home. He
(07:59):
would escorted by a multitude of fellow law enforcement officers
and his family and and dcso chaplains and the escort
him home safely, and and so that's cause for celebration
that that deputy arts are implemented his training and the
grace of God to be able to come out of
this with his life.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
And we're very happy today.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
And Sheriff, I want to ask you about how does
an event like happened on, you know, yesterday, how does
that affect your department? And what what does the Sheriff's
department do or departments in general do after a situation
like this to kind of without without you know, being
(08:43):
annoying to some people, right, like some guys in your office.
I don't know anybody tell me to be careful, but
I'm guessing that there's a there's some reminding going on.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yeah. So two things.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Number one, you know, when I when I was elected sheriff,
you know, I was one of the original peer support
officers in the Oma Police Department. Chiefsmater had the foresight
to create a peer support team to make sure that
not only were his officers prepared physically and healthy physically,
but also prepared mentally and spiritually. And so when I
(09:18):
came into the Sheriff's office, I was surprised to see
we did not have a peer support team for our
sworn or civilian staff. And so we created a peer
support team not only for the Sheriff's office, but we
extended it to the smaller police agencies and the volunteer
and suburban fire departments out in unincorporated Douglas County in
(09:39):
that area. And so in cases like this, we're going
to rely on that peer support team. We're going to
rely on that peer support training. Because you know, Deputy
artser will recover, he will heal physically, but being shot,
especially being twenty three years old. I mean, my daughter's
twenty one right, she's graduating from college next month. Than
(10:00):
she wants to be an Omah police officer because she
doesn't want to work for her dad. Who would want
to work for their dad?
Speaker 1 (10:05):
But but talk about grease and the skids for your career.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
But you know, I can't imagine being her age. I mean,
Deputy arts Aer is just a couple of years older
than my daughter, and I can't imagine how traumatic it
is to be at the receiving end of a felonious
gun assault. And so now we have to make sure
that we are attending to Deputy Artser and and his healing,
(10:31):
both both physically and spiritually. But there's also the residual
impact on the people around him. I mean, we got
a call this morning from a deputy who had been
involved in an officer involved shooting years before. He had
been shot in the line of duty years before, and
it impacted him and he wanted to reach out the
Deputy Artser Even though you know, this is a very
(10:52):
senior deputy and Deputy Archer is very new. He's like, Hey,
I feel a connection to this deputy. I want to
be there for him and help him experience the process
that he may go through, help him understand that's that
teamwork that ultimately will maintain a healthy culture and healthy
individualized deputies. I can't imagine being Deputy Archer less than
(11:13):
one year on the job, walking out of that hospital
room this morning to go home and seeing that hallway
lined all the way down the hall with deputies from
Criminal Investigations, Bureau Court Services, Bureau Uniform Services, Bureau civilian staff,
and his family and our chaplains. That is exactly the
(11:36):
team mentality that gets us through the tough times. That's
the type of family and team that you walk into
when you enter the when you join the Douglas kint
of Sheriff's Office. Now, in terms of what do we
do to prepare for it, Look, law enforcement is an
evolution of profession, right, you learn from every encounter. We
don't use call boxes anymore. We use motor road to radios, right.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
We don't used to be time where law enforcement ran
the ambulances and then we handed that responsibility off off
to the firefighters and paramedics. Things change, so we try
to learn from every incident that occurred and why that's
important is because domestic violence calls are one of the
most statistically deadly type of calls that a police officer
(12:22):
will go on. It's essentially risk of driving, high risk
of high speed driving, and domestic violence calls because they
are some of the most emotionally charged situations that a
police officer, a deputy will walk into.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
You know it, nobody sees their worst day coming, right
That's something I've told my kids for years, and I'm
guessing that's the same mentality that one has to have
on the street. You don't see your worst day coming,
but you've got to be ready for.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
It, and you never know what can happen. I mean,
let's take for example, what little we do know right
now that I can't or about what the shooting of
deputy arts are. It is not I can't imagine a
training scenario that we would set up where a deputy
immediately upon exiting his cruiser would begin taking gunfire from
someone that you can't even see, right, someone who's behind
(13:17):
a sliding glass door. That's that is not a common scenario.
That's a straight out ambush. Now, we do have ambush
training scenarios, but those are so dynamics, so spontaneous, that
it's toughical, it's tough and difficult to prepare for those.
So the best we can do is try to learn
from every one of these incidents, whether it happens to
(13:39):
us here locally in the case of deputy artser or
when we see tragedy or near tragedy happening in another
community another law enforcement officer, and try to adapt your
training to meet those very dynamic realities that could roll out.
Understanding that you cannot prevent all tragedies. When these young
(14:04):
deputies and officers and they put that uniform on, when
they strap that gun belt on their hip, when they
pin that star or that badge on their chest, they
could do everything right and not go home at the
end of the day. And so the best we can
do is try to prepare them with as much training
and appropriate equipment as we can to survive. Because I've
(14:26):
heard a lot of times in law enforcement training, we
don't rise to the occasion in law enforcement, we sink
to the level of our training when that high stress,
dynamic situation unfolds.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
In front of us.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Wow, all right, Chris Baker Radio program Sheriff Aaron Hanson,
and our in our remaining moments, Can I you don't
mind if I just get into your law enforcement experience
on a whole nother complete topic. Right, So, we were
talking about the story of a kid fifteen years old
who received eighty seven years in a murder. Horrible story.
(15:04):
There are people who think, well, he's only fifteen. So
just tapping into your experience from when you were a
gang officer. I know you've spent years dealing with juveniles
gang members. What's the mindset or general mindset I guess
(15:25):
in your opinion of a fifteen year old that might
get sucked into some behaviors such as, hey, let's go
find but guys we don't like and shoot them.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Well, this case in twenty twenty one. I was on
the Omah Police Department at the time, and I believe
I was still I believe I was still in the
gang unit at the time. But this case was very tragic.
I mean, it's always tragic when an innocent person loses
their life, but this one hit a lot of police
officers really hard. Because the victim in this case was
Larry Thompson. He was a he was a retired he
(16:01):
was a retired military man, and he had lived in
Spencer projects, And it was a group of young teens,
repeat offenders who went out and they weren't trying to
pinpoint or victimize him specifically. They were just looking to
(16:21):
hunt somebody, and that particular neighborhood, in their mind, was
considered rival territory. And so they saw him out like
he would normally do, enjoying the evening on his front porch,
and they shot and killed him. Now, I got to
tell you his loss, although tragic, did not go in vain.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
It was.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
It was that case as long as well as many
other cases of repeat juvenile offenders committing serious, repeat juvenile
crimes and taking the lives of innocent people that ultimately
resulted in the juvenile justice reforms that happened last year.
A lot of credit to my agency. They were worked
hard to uh to go down to Lincoln to uh
(17:03):
testify and support that that law change. Don Kline, our
Great County Attorney, went down there as well. Governor Pillen
was a champion to bring sanity back into our juvenile
justice laws. And I can tell you this anecdotally, since
that law has changed, and prosecutors and parents and judges
and law enforcement have had tools returned to them that
(17:25):
they didn't normally have. Essentially become a revolving door for
repeat juvenile offenders. I have anecdotally seen a dramatic slowdown
in those repeat serious crimes committed by known juvenile offenders
and are under under state supervision. And that's that's a
good news. That's positive coming out of tragedy.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Wow, well, my goodness, good, I'm glad. I'm glad you're
my share. You know your stuff. No hack, I don't
have any hacks.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Should being a great boss?
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Well yeah, by the way, before you get out of here,
would you run down there and get me an iced
tea from the No, I'm kidding, just joking.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
I'm not going to.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Tell the sheriff to do that. All right, Chris Pickers
Show Sheriff. Thanks, I appreciate you coming by God bless you.
Keep up the good work, and you know, we'll make
it really nice. If you decide you want to come
back here, try to do you know, get this law
enforcement thing.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
We'll try to steal Laylah back a bit.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
I think Layla should hang out here in Omaha in
the in the summer, not the winter. You go back
to Long Beach, then all right, all right, Sheriff, thanks man,
really appreciate you stopping by today, and we're really glad
to hear that your deputy went home and that.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Heading there to see him right now.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Oh good for you. We'll tell him we said hello,
We're now joined in studio by Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson,
along with an intern who is spying on Douglas County
sheriffing for Layla is here from Long Beach, California, and
she's spying on She's spying on Sheriff Hansen's.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
This is our last day with intern Layla, Our last
day with intern Laila as she completes her internship with
the Sheriff's office, and then she's gonna head back to
California to pursue law enforcement options. I told her I'd
write her a good letter of recommendations.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Good I will too, I'll write you one too. Why not?
All right?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
So, so yesterday I was MC and an Eagle Scout ceremony,
which was really great. And then next thing, you know,
my phone starts blowing up and I hear about a
horrible shooting involving one of your deputies. And this was
a domestic violence call, and so a lot I don't
(01:03):
have a lot of details. Details have been you know,
they've been coming out when they can come out. I
think you know you've done a great job, Sheriff, and
your media big shots have done a really good job
of not you know, jumping into the story too quick.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
But so tell us, let's go through this. What happened?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, actually I was. I was shopping at Minard's yesterday
looking for some for some garden supplies for Hanson Ranch,
and suddenly my phone started blowing up too, And the
first call I got was Mike McKnight, And of course,
because Mike McKnight's always on top of every every evolving
news story, but I heard the sirens as well, going
down Dodd Street. And what happened was at eleven forty
(01:45):
nine am, a nine call came in to a brand
new apartment complex in in Irvington in unincorporated Douglas County
one O three seven to two Weber Court. There was
a domestic disturbance UH female advise A boyfriend or ex
boyfriend had broken into apartment and immediately two deputies were
dispatched to respond. Not long after, there was an update
(02:08):
from the nine to one one caller that the boyfriend
was still unseen and causing the disturbance. Deputy Brayden Artzer
one of our newest deputies. He hasn't even been on
the job for a year, and he hasn't even been
out of field training for less than for a month,
but he was the first to respond there, dedicated and
(02:29):
willing to help an innocent victim. And as he exited
his cruiser and started to advance on the apartment building,
he took fire. Not only I mean he couldn't even see.
As far as we can tell, he couldn't even see
the attacker. He just knew that he was taking fire
from a ground level apartment. He was struck twice, once
(02:50):
in the arm, and as he turned to move and
escape and take cover, he was struck again. We just
found out this morning. He was struck in side. And
luckily that bullet was embedded right at the edge of
the side panel. It's possible had it gone a little
bit further to one side, we might be dealing with
(03:10):
a even worse outcome right now.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Wow, And if I could just for a moment, you know,
because my vast experience those vests, the side panels either
either go right together or sometimes they can overlap. It's
not real comfortable wearing them that way. But there's that
little bead gap in the side and it was that close, huh.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
That close?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
And literally I've lost friends who have been killed during
gun battles in which around pierced and separated the two
panels on the side, resulting in the death of one
of my friends. And so you know, it's a very
real risk. You can't you know, we can't make bullet
(03:56):
resistance vests that cover everything. It's just not possible to
do the best you can based on the constant evolution
of that technology.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
So he was, he was hit twice. Well, can we
can we talk about what kind of gun it was?
Or is that we're not talking about that yet, you.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Know, I think until I until I know for sure,
you know, I do know it was a handgun. I
was on SENE. I was in the hallway where the
shooter was ultimately located and transported via squad because he
had been mortally injured but still alive at that time,
to the emergency room, where where he did ultimately succumb
(04:37):
to his injuries. But you know, it would appear that
multiple shots in multiple volleys were fired at Deputy Artser
as he approached. Once Deputy Artser was hit, he retreated
back behind his vehicle and put it out over the
radio that he was taking fire and luckily too very
(04:57):
brave first responding Omah Plea officers rolled up as others
were securing the building and other deputies were arriving, and
they saw the deputy artser was injured seriously. They dumped
him into the back seat of the cruiser and they
performed a medical evacuation. They didn't wait for the squad.
They just evacuated him to Bergen Mercy Er so that
(05:20):
the medical professionals could begin life saving treatment. Very proud
of them, and I'm very thankful for our partners in OPD.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Well, when you know, when these guys respond, regardless of department,
they know, you know, like they I'm guessing they saw
that deputy, and so we can't wait for an ambulance.
Let's get this guy out of here immediately. And it was.
It was real fast. From what I understand I got. Well,
listening to you, it sounds like there was still maybe
(05:47):
some questions as to whether this was over or not.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
It wasn't over. I mean I think that you know,
the deputies had an officers had no reason to believe
that that the threat was over, and you know, but
what they did know is that they had innocent people
at risk and a sheriff's deputy had been injured and
they had to act, and they all did. They came
together as a team, and ultimately, once Deputy Artser had
(06:15):
been removed from the area, those Omaha police officers, those
Dougas Kinty Sheriff's deputies, those Nebraska State troopers, and the
Boystown police officers all came together to make a dynamic
entry into that apartment, take the shooting subject into custody,
and make the entire building safe again. It's a testament
(06:37):
to the teamwork that is law enforcement, not only you
know typically, but especially in this area. That particular area
is right on the edge of the city county boundary.
It's unincorporated Douglas County, so DCSOS primary jurisdiction, but within
a few blocks it's City of Omaha. So it's not
(06:57):
uncommon to have that overlap between the agents.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, Sheriff Arron Hanson with us here on the Chris
Bakers Show. Uh, do we know much about the suspect
in this case as far as criminal record?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Or we do, But I think at this time, you know,
I'm going to uh, we're doing a deep dive onto
the subject's record, and I know there will be a
time and place to discuss that, but right now, you know,
I want to be sensitive to the deceased individual's family
because they're innocent in the whole, right right. I mean
there you you had a domestic violence victim that had
(07:35):
some relationship with the shooting subject. You've got a lot
of family members and friends and and that you know,
a broad network. I met with them at the hospital yesterday,
and so I want to make sure that we're sensitive
to them as well. Today is a data to really
celebrate though, because Deputy r Artser just went home. He
(07:59):
would escorted by a multitude of fellow law enforcement officers
and his family and and dcso chaplains and the escort
him home safely, and and so that's cause for celebration
that that deputy arts are implemented his training and the
grace of God to be able to come out of
this with his life.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
And we're very happy today.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
And Sheriff, I want to ask you about how does
an event like happened on, you know, yesterday, how does
that affect your department? And what what does the Sheriff's
department do or departments in general do after a situation
like this to kind of without without you know, being
(08:43):
annoying to some people, right, like some guys in your office.
I don't know anybody tell me to be careful, but
I'm guessing that there's a there's some reminding going on.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yeah. So two things.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Number one, you know, when I when I was elected sheriff,
you know, I was one of the original peer support
officers in the Oma Police Department. Chiefsmater had the foresight
to create a peer support team to make sure that
not only were his officers prepared physically and healthy physically,
but also prepared mentally and spiritually. And so when I
(09:18):
came into the Sheriff's office, I was surprised to see
we did not have a peer support team for our
sworn or civilian staff. And so we created a peer
support team not only for the Sheriff's office, but we
extended it to the smaller police agencies and the volunteer
and suburban fire departments out in unincorporated Douglas County in
(09:39):
that area. And so in cases like this, we're going
to rely on that peer support team. We're going to
rely on that peer support training. Because you know, Deputy
artser will recover, he will heal physically, but being shot,
especially being twenty three years old. I mean, my daughter's
twenty one right, she's graduating from college next month. Than
(10:00):
she wants to be an Omah police officer because she
doesn't want to work for her dad. Who would want
to work for their dad?
Speaker 1 (10:05):
But but talk about grease and the skids for your career.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
But you know, I can't imagine being her age. I mean,
Deputy arts Aer is just a couple of years older
than my daughter, and I can't imagine how traumatic it
is to be at the receiving end of a felonious
gun assault. And so now we have to make sure
that we are attending to Deputy Artser and and his healing,
(10:31):
both both physically and spiritually. But there's also the residual
impact on the people around him. I mean, we got
a call this morning from a deputy who had been
involved in an officer involved shooting years before. He had
been shot in the line of duty years before, and
it impacted him and he wanted to reach out the
Deputy Artser Even though you know, this is a very
(10:52):
senior deputy and Deputy Archer is very new. He's like, Hey,
I feel a connection to this deputy. I want to
be there for him and help him experience the process
that he may go through, help him understand that's that
teamwork that ultimately will maintain a healthy culture and healthy
individualized deputies. I can't imagine being Deputy Archer less than
(11:13):
one year on the job, walking out of that hospital
room this morning to go home and seeing that hallway
lined all the way down the hall with deputies from
Criminal Investigations, Bureau Court Services, Bureau Uniform Services, Bureau civilian staff,
and his family and our chaplains. That is exactly the
(11:36):
team mentality that gets us through the tough times. That's
the type of family and team that you walk into
when you enter the when you join the Douglas kint
of Sheriff's Office. Now, in terms of what do we
do to prepare for it, Look, law enforcement is an
evolution of profession, right, you learn from every encounter. We
don't use call boxes anymore. We use motor road to radios, right.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
We don't used to be time where law enforcement ran
the ambulances and then we handed that responsibility off off
to the firefighters and paramedics. Things change, so we try
to learn from every incident that occurred and why that's
important is because domestic violence calls are one of the
most statistically deadly type of calls that a police officer
(12:22):
will go on. It's essentially risk of driving, high risk
of high speed driving, and domestic violence calls because they
are some of the most emotionally charged situations that a
police officer, a deputy will walk into.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
You know it, nobody sees their worst day coming, right
That's something I've told my kids for years, and I'm
guessing that's the same mentality that one has to have
on the street. You don't see your worst day coming,
but you've got to be ready for.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
It, and you never know what can happen. I mean,
let's take for example, what little we do know right
now that I can't or about what the shooting of
deputy arts are. It is not I can't imagine a
training scenario that we would set up where a deputy
immediately upon exiting his cruiser would begin taking gunfire from
someone that you can't even see, right, someone who's behind
(13:17):
a sliding glass door. That's that is not a common scenario.
That's a straight out ambush. Now, we do have ambush
training scenarios, but those are so dynamics, so spontaneous, that
it's toughical, it's tough and difficult to prepare for those.
So the best we can do is try to learn
from every one of these incidents, whether it happens to
(13:39):
us here locally in the case of deputy artser or
when we see tragedy or near tragedy happening in another
community another law enforcement officer, and try to adapt your
training to meet those very dynamic realities that could roll out.
Understanding that you cannot prevent all tragedies. When these young
(14:04):
deputies and officers and they put that uniform on, when
they strap that gun belt on their hip, when they
pin that star or that badge on their chest, they
could do everything right and not go home at the
end of the day. And so the best we can
do is try to prepare them with as much training
and appropriate equipment as we can to survive. Because I've
(14:26):
heard a lot of times in law enforcement training, we
don't rise to the occasion in law enforcement, we sink
to the level of our training when that high stress,
dynamic situation unfolds.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
In front of us.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Wow, all right, Chris Baker Radio program Sheriff Aaron Hanson,
and our in our remaining moments, Can I you don't
mind if I just get into your law enforcement experience
on a whole nother complete topic. Right, So, we were
talking about the story of a kid fifteen years old
who received eighty seven years in a murder. Horrible story.
(15:04):
There are people who think, well, he's only fifteen. So
just tapping into your experience from when you were a
gang officer. I know you've spent years dealing with juveniles
gang members. What's the mindset or general mindset I guess
(15:25):
in your opinion of a fifteen year old that might
get sucked into some behaviors such as, hey, let's go
find but guys we don't like and shoot them.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Well, this case in twenty twenty one. I was on
the Omah Police Department at the time, and I believe
I was still I believe I was still in the
gang unit at the time. But this case was very tragic.
I mean, it's always tragic when an innocent person loses
their life, but this one hit a lot of police
officers really hard. Because the victim in this case was
Larry Thompson. He was a he was a retired he
(16:01):
was a retired military man, and he had lived in
Spencer projects, And it was a group of young teens,
repeat offenders who went out and they weren't trying to
pinpoint or victimize him specifically. They were just looking to
(16:21):
hunt somebody, and that particular neighborhood, in their mind, was
considered rival territory. And so they saw him out like
he would normally do, enjoying the evening on his front porch,
and they shot and killed him. Now, I got to
tell you his loss, although tragic, did not go in vain.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
It was.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
It was that case as long as well as many
other cases of repeat juvenile offenders committing serious, repeat juvenile
crimes and taking the lives of innocent people that ultimately
resulted in the juvenile justice reforms that happened last year.
A lot of credit to my agency. They were worked
hard to uh to go down to Lincoln to uh
(17:03):
testify and support that that law change. Don Kline, our
Great County Attorney, went down there as well. Governor Pillen
was a champion to bring sanity back into our juvenile
justice laws. And I can tell you this anecdotally, since
that law has changed, and prosecutors and parents and judges
and law enforcement have had tools returned to them that
(17:25):
they didn't normally have. Essentially become a revolving door for
repeat juvenile offenders. I have anecdotally seen a dramatic slowdown
in those repeat serious crimes committed by known juvenile offenders
and are under under state supervision. And that's that's a
good news. That's positive coming out of tragedy.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Wow, well, my goodness, good, I'm glad. I'm glad you're
my share. You know your stuff. No hack, I don't
have any hacks.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Should being a great boss?
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Well yeah, by the way, before you get out of here,
would you run down there and get me an iced
tea from the No, I'm kidding, just joking.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
I'm not going to.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Tell the sheriff to do that. All right, Chris Pickers
Show Sheriff. Thanks, I appreciate you coming by God bless you.
Keep up the good work, and you know, we'll make
it really nice. If you decide you want to come
back here, try to do you know, get this law
enforcement thing.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
We'll try to steal Laylah back a bit.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
I think Layla should hang out here in Omaha in
the in the summer, not the winter. You go back
to Long Beach, then all right, all right, Sheriff, thanks man,
really appreciate you stopping by today, and we're really glad
to hear that your deputy went home and that.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Heading there to see him right now.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Oh good for you. We'll tell him we said hello,
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